Taking It Off for the Coyote

by Serenity Snow

  “Let’s get out of here,” a masculine voice murmured. “I told you, I heard someone out here.”

  “I don’t scent anyone,” his companion replied. “Besides, Patty will kill us if we don’t get a look around.”

  “I’ll program their minds,” Cambrie said in the same tone Sydney had used. “Send them back. They’ll feed info to us or fight against Patty.”

  “If we get close enough.”

  “Someone’s out there,” one of the men muttered.

  “I just need to catch one of their eyes,” Cambrie told her and moved out of the trees they’d taken to.

  Sydney hurried to her side as Cambrie went still. She seemed to be focused on something below her. She crept carefully closer. She saw two men looking up, but didn’t speak as Cambrie whispered.

  “Good. Then, you’ll report to Cruise and Rick every change in plan that will be made tonight,” she murmured. “You’ll fight to the death to defend the resisters. They are your pack.”

  “Our pack,” both men agreed.

  “Whenever you hear the word pack, you’ll remember that Gray Tail’s resisters are your pack and you can’t betray them.”

  “Can’t betray them.”

  “Die for them,” the other one said.

  “Tell Patty teams are being added to the border and it’s dangerous to cross,” Cambrie said.

  “Dangerous to cross.”

  “Go. Coyotes are coming,” Cambrie said urgently. “Hurry.” She stepped back out of sight and both men took off running.

  “Damn you’re scary.”

  “They have excellent eyesight that’s why I could do it from here,” Cambrie said. “And their minds aren’t too hard to break into. The electro-shock trackers in them have weakened most of their wills to disobey. They’ve been trained that pain follows resistance.”

  “They were a mistake,” Sydney said.

  “Yeah, but they ensure no one turns on her or tries to leave,” Cambrie told her. “I still remember the Gray Tail den. The knowledge should come in handy, and with the hyena weaknesses, we’ll have an advantage.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  The planning session took place in Mallory’s office. With information from Cruise about the time of the party and the change of venue from the party hall to the outdoors, they were able to plan where the initial attack would begin.

  “Cruise says there are explosives, so one team will go directly to that area to deal with them,” Sam told them. “The border will probably be heavily patrolled by Gray Tail. Oaklyn’s no fool.”

  “Patty knows I’m in town, and she’ll assume I’ll disarm at the border if she has forces there,” Cambrie spoke up. “So, I shouldn’t be there, but if you have diving equipment there’s a point further down the lake that they won’t expect entry and according to the map they’ve used it to bring in their forces and the explosives.”

  “It’ll be heavily guarded,” Mallory said grimly. “Getting in will be difficult.”

  “Hard, but they won’t be expecting us. Oaklyn’s probably forgotten I spent a great deal of time there as a kid. I still know that land like the back of my hand. And my cousin gave me pictures of where she lived so I know that area has changed some.”

  “What are you saying?” Sam demanded.

  “She lived not far from the point of possible entry. She was going to have a cabin built for me there. When I touched the pictures I could see everything she saw when she took them including the possible entry area. There are trees and shrubs that can be used for cover by them and us.”

  “You’re saying it’s doable,” Mica said.

  “Exactly. All I need is eye contact with one person, and I’ll know how many there are out there and where they are. Then, I can make them kill each other or we can attack them.”

  “Have them kill each other,” Sam told her. “Exact all intel first.”

  “I can give you a crash course in linking your minds through your animal,” Cambrie said. “I mean can you do it in human form?”

  “No, only in animal form,” Sydney said.

  “Well, I can teach you to access that link and through you Sydney, they can know everything I get from the mind I invade.”

  “Where all the explosives are, how many people etcetera?” Mallory asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Will that give you access to our minds?” Sam asked.

  “No. Just Sydney’s which I already have.” Sydney looked at her then and she saw something in her eyes. Knowledge and understanding. Now, her mate knew why she said Sydney should have felt she had her trust. She could have gotten into Sydney’s mind easily. The coyote had no barriers against her after the animal decided she belonged to it.

  Sam and Mallory looked at her. “How do we know you’re not controlling her now?” Sam demanded.

  “She’s not,” Sydney snapped. “Damn it, Sam. Trust me.”

  “She’s not controlling her,” Mica murmured. “Any more than Adalyn would be controlling you if she could. Love has a way of making us trust even a little bit.”

  “Shut up, Mica,” Cambrie muttered.

  “Hey, little sis, I’m just trying to get us back on track,” she said giving her a grin. “Besides, Syd already knows you care about her. If you didn’t, you’d have fucked over her like you did Sam. You didn’t really even bend her mind. You just gave her a tiny little nudge.”

  “Okay, then, let’s get this done, so we can be ready to move out in a few hours,” Mallory said.

  ****

  Sydney had decided to lead the dive team and allow Cambrie to take point while she and the others acted as her defense. It was a risk because her mate could die before she made the contact she needed to make.

  They came up on the lake’s bank beneath the sliver of moon hidden by the foliage of the colorful trees. Sydney picked up the scents of hyenas immediately despite the lake mud. The plan had been to fight in human form as much as possible, but each person had brought a change of clothes in case that would be stashed along the bank.

  “Stop,” Cambrie said telepathically to Sydney. “I’ll step out first.”

  “You can feel them?”

  “I was connected to most of them mentally at one time or another. Picking up their mental signatures is second-nature.”

  Sydney commanded the others to take cover and stay on guard. She moved behind a bush and watched Cambrie take a few steps. She heard the faint movement from above and looked up spying a member of Gray Tail security she’d coordinated with more than once.

  Horror constricted her heart as he pulled the trigger of a gun he was holding. Her coyote was spurred into action hoping to keep her mate from being killed.

  Cambrie tripped over something and went down as the bullet whizzed over her head. Exposed now, Sydney went after the coyote who snarled as he fired down at her.

  ****

  Cambrie rolled onto her back as the leaves on the canopy trees wiggled and whispered above her. She let out a silent cry as she rolled. Two shots pelted the ground before a hyena’s snarl turned her head.

  The animal lunged at her, and she let out a cry as she rolled out of reach and sat up. She quickly came into a crouch and met its gaze. The animal looked away and another knocked her onto her back from behind. The hyena growled and two animals tumbled out to the side of her.

  “Scared?” she challenged the hyena before her as it snarled at her.

  It looked at her for a millisecond and that was all it took for her to send it an image of heart-clenching pain. The animal went to the ground in pain and she got to her feet and rushed forward and right into the arms of Sorrento.

  He was strong. His mind was almost as hard to hold as Patty’s.

  “Good to see you again,” he murmured. “Patty sends her regards. She can’t be here. She’s having a little chat with Summerfield.” He drove a knife into her stomach. “It’s a shame you wouldn’t be brought around, but I never truly expected you to.”

  She gasped from the pain s
lithering through her, and pushed her hand into his hair. She sent an image into his mind that the knife was red hot, and he let out a cry and dropped it in its drive toward her.

  “You’ll do,” she said and pushed into his mind. He fought her but she paralyzed him with the fear that was eating at her. The fear she’d come this far to die at Sorrento’s hands after all. She drew the secrets from his mind as fighting raged around them.

  Two warring animals smashed into them and Sorrento slapped her as her control broke.

  She drove her knee forward and he blocked it, hitting her again and causing her to reel backward. He was on her grabbing her braid as he closed a hand around her throat.

  “I’m going to take pleasure in eating you,” he told her in a hard tone.

  She gasped for breath, her skin clammy. Cambrie hit him with a telepathic blast that broke his hold on her and then she kicked him in the knee before striking him with a cross-punch to the jaw.

  He laughed at her and shifted in a sparkle of color and then leaped forward. She had no real defense at the moment against the animal she knew would kill her. So she did the only thing she could. She dove out of the way.

  Cambrie rolled and came onto her knees to hyena laughs. She gritted her teeth against the sound.

  He lunged at her, but this time she was ready. She hit him with a telepathic blast that drew a howl from him. He landed on the ground in front of her hard. Sorrento shifted back into his human form and their eyes held. She reached into his mind and used the link she’d created long ago.

  Cambrie knew the others would instinctively open to her. The shock that coursed through them when they didn’t would make sure of it.

  Patty had no idea how to remove the old programming and probably didn’t know she could still tap into it. The link extended into her mind too. Patty was probably the only one that wouldn’t open her mind.

  Cambrie clenched her hand into a fist and used that connection to send out a blast that would turn each mind to mush. The ripple effect would ensure the power radiated would hit with an even more powerful blast.

  Screams of pain erupted around her and Cambrie sent the weight of her rage through Sorrento to amplify the telepathic blast. His face reddened and he writhed on the ground with blood coming out of his mouth.

  She knew the rage was crushing and that alone would kill more than the blast on its own would have. The blast would lose strength the further it had to go, but the rage was magnified by their fear and their own anger.

  The wood grew silent in a few minutes and Sydney rushed to her just as an explosion rocked the den.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Patty let out a loud growl when the pain rippled through her. She fought the crushing agony in her chest, the loss of breath, and the burning that turned her blood to lava. She went to her knees as she tried to fight through it.

  Her heart beat faster, felt as if it were being slowly stopped. Patty rushed Sam despite her pain. She had no idea what was going on with her, but she wasn’t going to go down like this.

  Sam caught the fist Patty threw and drove her free hand forward, and her eyes widened. Claws pierced her flesh and the pain in her chest increased.

  “I see your mother in you now,” Sam murmured. “She was a bitch of a fighter, but I’m not a child anymore.”

  Patty tried to pull free, but she was too weak. “Damn her,” she breathed out roughly as the claws went deeper into her breaking a rib. She grunted, her breath coming out in hard pants. “This is … is Natasha’s work,” she said roughly. “I knew she was holding back from me.”

  “Who’s Natasha?” Sam demanded with a frown and Patty laughed.

  “You don’t know her. She’s as dangerous as a human can be,” Patty said weakly. “A fucking freak. My child will come for you. My mate will make sure of it.”

  “I’ll kill it too,” Sam told her with a sneer.

  Patty laughed as she sagged. “You didn’t kill me , Natasha—bitch. This isn’t over.” She stopped fighting knowing she couldn’t beat this. In her next lifetime, she’d kill them all.

  ****

  Cambrie stumbled and Sydney’s arms came around her. “She’s gone.”

  “Are you hurt, baby?” Sydney demanded. “Cam?”

  “A little tired.” Taking control of over sixty minds had taken a toll on her. She’d be fine after her stomach was healed, and she’d rested.

  “She’s bleeding,” Mica snapped. “Sydney—”

  Mica’s voice began fading. Cambrie tried to fight the darkness coming over her.

  “I’ll get her out of here,” Sydney said grimly.

  “Adalyn’s standing by with Miranda and Bay,” Mica told her.

  ****

  Sydney paced the waiting room of the small clinic in the Gray Tail den twenty minutes later. Cruise had found them as they attempted to get to the border. He’d insisted Cambrie be healed here. In a way she was glad. Cambrie had been bleeding badly enough that she feared for her life.

  “How’s she holding up?” Sam asked coming in behind Sydney.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “There’s been no word.”

  “Mica just took Miranda in.”

  Sydney gave her a curious look. “I’m surprised.”

  “About what?” Sam asked coolly.

  “You allowing one of ours to help Cam.”

  “She’s one of mine now,” Sam told her. “Oaklyn’s people put him out of his misery, and I’ve ordered a cleanup of the bodies. The rest of those backing will be executed later.”

  “How many down?”

  “Seventy-five,” Sam said. “Including Patricia.”

  “Cam did that,” she said in awe.

  “I wish I knew exactly what that was,” Sam said. “But there’ll be time for that later. In the meantime, we’ll take a tour of the land tomorrow in the morning. I want to get moved in by afternoon.”

  “That soon? Why?”

  “The longer I wait the more resistant resisters will be. Cruise is going to take a spot in my security team, but you Brynn, and Mica are still my top three lieutenants.”

  Sydney nodded. “You want me to work with him to ensure a smooth transition.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like your mate to do that. These are her people. She’ll make a good liaison.”

  “You trust her not to rally them against you?”

  “I trust her bond with you,” Sam told her. “And I trust you.”

  Sydney exhaled softly.

  “Natasha?” Sam asked.

  “Her name was changed when she left,” Sydney told her. “Now, she’s Cambrie. I rather like Cambrie.” She smiled.

  Sam shrugged and they both turned quickly picking up Miranda’s scent at the same time.

  “Miranda?” Sydney demanded as they rushed to her.

  “She’s recovering. You can go in. “

  Sydney gave Sam a look. “We’ll talk later,” she said and went to Cambrie. The small room contained a bed but no windows. The dim lamp barely illuminated the white-walled room.

  Cambrie’s eyes fluttered open and Sydney smiled. Cambrie’s lips turned up in welcome. “Hey you.”

  “Sleeping beauty, you’re supposed to wait for your princess to wake you,” Sydney teased.

  Cambrie laughed weakly. “Next time,” she said.

  “I hope there won’t be a next time,” she murmured sitting on the edge of the bed. Sydney took Cambrie’s hand in hers and kissed her knuckles. “Are you okay, baby?”

  Cambrie nodded. “More or less,” she said. “Sydney, I hate you had to see that.”

  “See your shameless display of power?” she teased.

  “The carnage of it,” she said heavily and closed her eyes for a moment.

  “I’m not afraid of you, mate,” Sydney told her. “I love you, and I know you won’t hurt me.”

  “You trust me not to use my power against you?”

  “With all my heart,” she murmured and leaned down to brush a kiss over Cambrie’s fo
rehead. “Now, rest. Sam has a big job for you.”

  “What?”

  “Inter-pack liaison.”

  “Sydney I don’t know if I can do it.”

  “Sure you can, baby,” she said encouragingly.

  “I was a teacher not a diplomat.”

  Sydney smiled. “I knew you had brains with your beauty.”

  “Like you, my princess charming?”

  Sydney shrugged. “I can’t wait to start our life together.”

  “We already have,” Cambrie told her and smiled softly. “I’m taking off all of my fears and trusting you right now.”

  Sydney smiled and warmth shone in her eyes. “Glad I’m not the only one.”

  “How could you be, you had me from that first look, and I just fall deeper in love with you by the day. In six months you’ll own my heart, Syd.”

  “Good because you’ll have mine in a death grip too.” Her heart was already so full of Cambrie she didn’t know how she’d bear the real happiness that would come as they learned each other and grew together as a couple.

  Cambrie squeezed her hand. “Stay with me?”

  Sydney kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the bed next to her and Cambrie nestled against her. Their heart beats changed just a little to match each other’s as Cambrie closed her eyes to drift off to sleep.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Cambrie was up and around the next afternoon. After a light lunch, she was called into Sam’s office which used to be the last alpha’s. The room had many windows and overflowed with brightness. The harsh lines of the furniture was offset by the rich chocolates and creams of the colors used in decoration and furnishings.

  “I’m glad to see you’re recovered,” Sam said, gaze sliding over her.

  “Thanks.” Cambrie nodded.

  “Patricia said you were dangerous.”

  Cambrie shrugged. “She forgot I was linked to the pack,” Cambrie told her. “I left before the link was cut. But I’m not linked to your pack. Your connection came from your animal connection to Syd.”